Alec MacGillis

Reporter

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Alec MacGillis is a reporter for ProPublica, focusing on gun violence, economic inequality and the pandemic-era schools crisis. MacGillis previously reported for The New Republic, The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. He won the 2016 Robin Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the 2017 Polk Award for National Reporting and the 2017 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, New York and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications.

A resident of Baltimore, MacGillis is the author of “The Cynic,” a 2014 biography of Sen. Mitch McConnell, and “Fulfillment: America in the Shadow of Amazon.”

How Mitch McConnell Made Donald Trump

The president owes both his election and his long-term impact to the Senate majority leader, who not only engineered the strategy that will let Trump make two Supreme Court appointments, but also created the circumstances that facilitated his rise. 

Forced to Choose Between a Job — and a Community

As the largest employer in Adams County, Ohio, closes its coal-fired power plants there, politicians and companies have thrown up their hands. Families know that finding work means leaving the place they know.

Before the Blankenship-McConnell Feud, the Senator Aided the Mining Executive

Mitch McConnell helped Don Blankenship’s company avoid dire regulatory consequences for a disastrous spill in 2000.

Billion-Dollar Blessings

How Jerry Falwell Jr. transformed Liberty University, one of the religious right's most powerful institutions, into a wildly lucrative online empire.

Addiction Drug’s Side Effect: More Overdoses?

Researchers suggest people getting Vivitrol shots may be more susceptible to a fatal overdose if they halt the regimen early and resume using opiates.

How Political Pessimism Helps Doom Tougher Gun Laws

Saying ‘nothing will change’ has empowered the NRA and ignores its declining punch.

Kushner Companies Decides to Fight Tenants in State Court Rather Than Reveal Its Investors’ Identities

The move follows a federal judge’s ruling in favor of disclosure.

Judge: Kushner Company Must Reveal Identities of Real Estate Partners

The ruling comes in a class-action lawsuit filed by tenants of Kushner-managed apartment complexes in the Baltimore area.

Despite Trump Campaign Promise, Billionaires’ Tax Loophole Survives Again

The tax treatment of so-called carried interest wouldn’t change in the overhaul proposed by House Republicans, retaining a big benefit for private-equity and hedge-fund titans.

Book Review: The Ordeal of Appalachia

A new account challenges our notion of how the people of Appalachia “acquired civilization and then lost it.”

Maryland Investigating Kushner Real Estate Practices

The probe by the Maryland attorney general comes after reports by ProPublica, The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun about the firm’s aggressive treatment of tenants.

Baltimore’s ‘Kushnerville’ Tenants File Class Action Against Landlord

Tenants allege that a property management firm controlled by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s real-estate company has unjustly charged them fees and threatened eviction to make them pay up.

Is Anybody Home at HUD?

A long-harbored conservative dream — the “dismantling of the administrative state” — is taking place under Secretary Ben Carson.

U.S. Lawmakers Seek Kushner Company Records on Maryland Apartments

Democrats from the state’s congressional delegation say articles by ProPublica, The New York Times Magazine and The Baltimore Sun raise “very serious and troubling concerns” about whether Kushner’s businesses comply with federal housing standards.

A Stealth History Lesson in Baltimore

The city’s removal of Confederate statues in the dead of night was Baltimore’s latest attempt to make peace with the ghosts of the Civil War.

The Last Shot

Amid a surging opiate crisis, the maker of the anti-addiction drug Vivitrol skirted the usual sales channels. It found a captive market for its once-a-month injection in the criminal justice system.

The Beleaguered Tenants of ‘Kushnerville’

Tenants in more than a dozen Baltimore-area rental complexes complain about a property owner who they say leaves their homes in disrepair, humiliates late-paying renters and often sues them when they try to move out. Few of them know that their landlord is the president’s son-in-law.

Can the Democrats Be as Stubborn as Mitch McConnell?

If Chuck Schumer and his Senate Democrats choose a path of obstructing President Trump’s agenda, they will have learned from the best.

Rick Perry’s Texas Giveaways

The soon-to-be U.S. energy secretary doled out billions in grants and tax incentives for corporations while governor of Texas. One $30 million grant went to an energy group that turned out to be a phantom.

Would Washington’s FDA Fix Cure the Patients or the Drug Industry?

A bill that would speed up approval for medications and medical devices shows how a major initiative can get traction even in the midst of Washington gridlock — but critics say all the lobbying is drowning out some warnings about patient safety.

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